PRESUPPOSITIONS

A
presupposition is knowledge taken for granted in the receiver, to simplify
communication and reduce the use of linguistic and paralinguistic signs.

For
instance a woman wearing a white dress with a tulle veil in the western world
is a bride.

We usually
use presuppositions in our everyday talk, otherwise we’d be too long-winded.

Everyone
would order “a glass of water” at the bar without feeling the need to tell the
bartender that we’re referring to “a crystal glass full of water”, knowing that
he would never understand “a glass composed of water”.

It's
evident that the level of cooperation between the actants of communication
(sender and receiver) in these cases must be very high, otherwise it would be
impossible any communicative exchange.

Assuming
that the receiver has certain knowledge that we take for granted may, in fact,
be hazardous from a communication point of view.

Stepping
into a pub in Ireland and ordering two beers by showing the bartender two
fingers to compensate for our bad English means being rude.

The whole
comic communication is based on false presuppositions:

Him and her on a bench.

She: You know, I think it's time that we get
married

He: Who would like to marry two like us?

The
presuppositions are part of the techniques of persuasion and of sending
subliminal messages.

They are
among the tricks used to push the behavior of the receiver in a given
direction.

They move
attention from something seemingly unimportant, taking it for granted, while
calling for a decision on another item important.

It gives to
the receiver the feeling of being able to choose, when in fact the sender
decide for him, using this communicative tool.

Whatever
the recipient will decide, however, what will the Company had already decided
as a primary objective.

"What it is your favorite color for the
new car ... black or blue?" (It assumes you’ll buy a new car).

Presuppositions
can be useful when we need to send a series of interwoven messages to multiple
receivers with different competences, but all potential targets of the same
product.